THE CROWN IMPERIAL. 



"And presently the Crocus heard their greeting, and awoke, 

 And donned with care her golden robe and emerald-coloured cloak ; 



# *■'>*** # 



The Crocus brought her sisters too, the purple, pied, and white; 

 And the redbreast warbled merrily above the flowerets bright." 



Bernard Barton looked upon it as an emblem of the leaf 

 v/hich the dove brought to Noah in the ark, when hoping for 

 the subsidence of the waters, and thus addressed it : — 



" Thine is the flower of hope, whose hue 

 Is bright with coming joy." 



So poets, and all who delight in flowers, have felt a gush of 

 pleasure when these bright things have first presented them- 

 selves in the parterre, a promise of the coming spring. 



THE CROWN IMPERIAL {Fritillaria Imperialis).— 



Power. 



Fritillaria, the generic name of the chequered Daffodil, 

 or Snake's-head Lily, was given to it from its resemblance to 

 the Roman dice-box. Our indigenous species is called 

 Meleagris, because its markings are like those of Guinea-fowl, 

 hence we find people speaking of it as the Guinea-hen 

 flower. Its tulip-shaped cup hangs down inverted, which has 

 given rise to the absurd name of ** The Drooping Young 

 Man," in some parts of the country. It is a common plant in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, and we have met with it in Cambridge- 

 shire. It was at one time so abundant near Kew, that a 

 meadow between that royal residence and Mortlake, retains 



63 



